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Potatoes Australia December 2016/January 2017

new varieties to be introduced

into Australia.

“Our overseas clients and

Australian agents can apply to

import new varieties through

the Australian Department

of Agriculture and Water

Resources. This ensures only

high health, pathogen-free

tissue culture is introduced

into Australia. Quarantine tests

the tissue culture over several

months against an extensive list

of pathogens and only release

material which has tested

negative to these pathogens,”

Ms Lochert said.

“It can then be released to

an accredited tissue culture

laboratory to work with that

material further. Solan is one of

those, along with Toolangi Elite

and Agronico. Each of these

three accredited laboratories

accept new tissue culture that

has come into Australia and hold

or produce from it on behalf

of the international owner or

Australian agent.”

Mr Morley added that many

varieties are introduced on a

trial basis, and field testing

is conducted to assess its

marketability and commercial

potential.

“Australia is a signatory to the

Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR)

Convention. We at Solan are

registered to do PBR work, so a

lot of that new material comes

in to us. We test them, we grow

them, we assess them and we

report back to the owner and/or

importer,” he said.

Mr McKay added that Agronico

also provides services in the

licencing of varieties.

“We do have a fairly secure

system in terms of getting seed

potatoes to our growers. We hold

the cultures, grow the mini-

tubers and then we grow those

on for multiple generations.

That enables us to hold onto

the varieties and make sure

they’re secure,” he said.

“We’ve had various field days

at Toolangi and a lot of growers

are surprised about the science

and the rigour that’s actually

involved in the process. It

sounds easy, but it’s not an

easy process to do.”

Agronico has been using a

hydroponic system since it

started its mini-tuber production

20 years ago. Stewart McKay is

involved with mini-tuber sales at

Agronico, and he explained the

differences in the process.

“We grow the mini-tubers in

stainless steel troughs, and we

don’t have any organic material

there other than the potato

plants,” Mr McKay said.

“We get pretty good

multiplication rates … we work

on about 15-25 mini-tubers per

plant depending on the variety.

That means that we can put in

less tissue culture plants and get

higher yield. We also have the

ability to bulk up really quickly.

“In the last 10-12 years,

we’ve gotten to the point where

we’re producing pretty good

material using the hydroponic

system. We can fast-track

varieties, which is something that

is seen as an advantage.”

To introduce varieties into the

system from within Australia,

desired plants are selected from

breeding programs and, through

the process of meristem culture,

are introduced to a tissue culture

system. This plant material is

subjected to rigorous testing

and only released once tests for

pathogens are negative. This

high health tissue culture stock

can then be made available for

production purposes within the

Australian industry.

On the other hand, a set of

strict criteria must be met for

Potato tissue multiplication. Image courtesy of Solan.

Many new potato varieties are introduced on

a trial basis. Image courtesy of Agronico.

Agronico has been using a hydroponic system since it started its

mini-tuber production 20 years ago. Image courtesy of Agronico.

Mini-tuber production